On June 22nd 2005, the State Government of Orissa has signed an MoU with the Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) of South Korea. 6 months since the signing of the deal, very little is known about the details of this MoU

According to the MoU, POSCO will construct a steel plant at Paradeep in Jagat Singhpur district of Orissa with an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes steel with the plant planning to produce 3 million tonnes of steel by the year 2010 and 12 million tonnes by 2016. The company will spend Rs 51,000 crore for this plant in phases.

However, the Orissa State Government led by Mr Naveen Patnaik has been very secretive about the details of the MoU. It is not clear how much coal, Iron ore or utilities will be provided by the state and at what cost. Very little has been presented about the roadmap of the plant.

It is ironic that the government has been unwilling to share information about the biggest Foreign Direct Investment project. Surely this begs the question – Why?

The resources of Orissa are not personal property of the government of Orissa or of Mr Naveen Patnaik. They are the representative of Orissa and are obliged to present the details of the deal to the people of Orissa – even the larger Indian community.

In addition, given the size of this project, we expect that there will be significant logistical and operational aspects that will directly affect the people of Orissa. How is the state government planning to deal with this? There is no doubt that this plant will produce large amounts of mining and processing waste – how will this be treated and where will this be dumped? Surely the people have the right to know?

The plant and its operations will also surely displace thousands of people. What plans does the state government have in terms of rehabilitation of these displaced people? This question gains added importance given that those displaced by the Hirakud project have still not been given land or otherwise rehabilitated.

The non-transparent nature of this process is suspicious. In the past we have had numerous state governments signing MoUs with various corporations in non-transparent manner. Enron comes to mind rather quickly. In each of these cases, the terms of the agreement were heavily stacked against the people who are still bearing the cost of these deals.

This project is not one of state security – why then has the government consistently avoided presenting the details. What does it have to hide? In fact, instead of answering these questions Mr Patnaik has opted present regional and nationalistic rhetoric.

It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister is suggesting to Oriya that being patriotic or caring about Orissa implies we not ask questions of our representatives. It seems ironic that transparency in governance is being presented as against the interest of Orissa.

It is also rather unfortunate that besides an initial opposition – that seemed more the nature of opposing government than a principled stance against such a process – the media, the political opposition and the larger civic society in Orissa has largely left the issue unquestioned.

What goodies will POSCO bag away and what will the people of Orissa pay? That is a question that cannot be left unanswered.

- Sanat Mohanty

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